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In John's Easter account, people spend the day running around trying to come to terms with what God has done in the night.

We can't predict the future, but we can look at the interesting things that are happening now, and we can dream about where God might be calling us. When imagining what might be coming, there are a few approaches or attitudes that can orient us. 

So the senior pastor and I decided not to chant the communion liturgy this year during Lent, thinking it would be simple and a bit austere—and that, like "Alleluia," we might miss it and long for i...

New today from the Century: Carol Zaleski on praying for and with the pope, Diane Roth's fast from chanting, more.

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

History is littered with the husks of failed faith-based campaigns to change society. Will the current gun control push be different?

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Though I sympathize with those who feel weary when talking about what is to come, I forge ahead because the "future" is not far off, planning is vital, and I care about a new generation.

Luke describes Jesus riding heroically into Jerusalem on Palm/Passion Sunday. According to archetypal imagery, is Jesus riding to heroic victory or tragic defeat? Luke offers hints along the way that the trajectory between Palm Sunday and Good Friday is something other than utter failure, but they’re subtle hints: Jesus claims the authority to pardon even as he himself is hanging on the executioner’s cross; as he dies, he continues to discuss his kingdom and paradise.

New today from the Century: Faith-based gun control efforts, hope for the church's future, more.

The years I spent preaching Easter brought me closer to the heart of resurrection news. They drove me deeper into the gospel.

(RNS) South America, a continent known to many Americans largely for roiling politics, economic turmoil and good beaches, now finds itself in possession of the global image trifecta: a W...

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

Paul MacInnes’s tongue-in-cheek column on “jobs a robot could never steal” got me to thinking: could a robot ever take the place of a pastor? Sadly, I have to conclude that a robot could replicate a lot of what the average cleric does, or even do it better.

Top DC blogger Ezra Klein has risen quickly in influence and reach over the last decade, from blogging independently to labor-left magazine the American Prospect to the Washington Post, where he soon picked up an assistant and then a staff of bloggers. Klein has long been a big draw for those of us who folllow the intersection of politics and domestic policy; these days, his Wonkblog is absolutely indispensable.

I wrote a post last week about Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In and said in part: There is still a tremendous gender gap in ministry. By and large, women are the associate pastors and solo pastors. Men are the tall-steeple preachers. (Men of my generation are very sad about this, and they lament it—sincerely, I believe—but will gladly move into those prestigious and well-paying positions even as they tilt their heads sympathetically and decry the patriarchy.)

New today from the Century: John Buchanan on preaching Easter, MaryAnn McKibben Dana on "leaning in," more.

Graham Greene "read theology constantly and always refers to God," says Pico Iyer. "But it's a God he doesn't always claim to know."

A survey that asked churches how they fared during the economic recession found that there was a collective sigh of relief from most pastors and congregational leaders—nearly 75 percent said “well”...